Your guide to eating your way through the inaugural LA Chocolate Festival

The world of artisanal chocolate has exploded. Going into a specialist store, or even a mainstream supermarket, can be overwhelming, with rows of gorgeously designed chocolate bars facing you. How on earth do you find out what you like — let alone what to buy?

That’s the question Brian Cisneros, director of this weekend’s inaugural L.A. Chocolate Festival, would like to help you with. He sees the festival — in addition to being a great way to bask in chocolate for a day or two — as a way to learn how to read labels, properly taste chocolate and meet the people behind those craft bars.

“You've had some practice, you've met some chocolate makers,” he said. “And now you're able to evaluate, ‘Oh, that was worth the $8,’ or, ‘That was so good, I'm going to get that as a gift.’”

Everything chocolate is on offer, from pastries and drinking chocolate to ceremonial cacao.

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Char Beck

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Courtesy LA Chocolate Festival

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Cisneros has been passionate about spreading the bean-to-bar chocolate gospel for 18 years, since he began the then-tiny but now large-scale annual Northwest Chocolate Festival in Seattle.

“When I founded the festival, there were only six craft chocolate or bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the United States,” he recalled.

Chocolate back then was dominated by large conglomerate producers, whose trade and manufacturing practices were increasingly being called out by activists.

“I had learned about all the trade implications in chocolate, and I really wanted to help connect people with chocolate that was ethical,” he said. “That was part of the original reason for the show.”

As the craft movement has expanded, so has the Northwest festival, with more than 100 exhibitors from all over the world. Well established enough, he felt, to expand to Los Angeles this year. He also has a personal connection — he grew up in Bellflower, with a grandmother who lived in East Los Angeles, before moving to Seattle for high school.

“So there is a little bit of a homecoming energy for me personally,” he said, “though I try to keep that internal.”

Exhibitors include Dick Taylor, a small batch maker from Northern California.

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Char Beck

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Courtesy LA Chocolate Festival

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The festival is being held on Saturday, Nov. 7, and Sunday, Nov. 8, at The Magic Box @ The Reef in DTLA. It’s the new kid in town — smaller than its Seattle sibling at around 30 exhibitors — but Cisneros sees advantages in a more intimate, less overwhelming event, aiming for a “more boutique experience,” he said. Exhibitors include California maker Dick Taylor and Melissa Coppel, a Las Vegas-based vegan chocolate maker, with educational workshops all day included in the ticket price.